Written By Saqib Zia
For last 30 years Sharif family has been ruling Pakistan, enjoying perks, privileges of power and Punjab the largest province known as heartland of politics had been under its grip for so many years. Mian Nawaz Sharif became prime Minister of Pakistan for a record three times and his young brother Shehbaz Sharif too was elected chief minister of Punjab for three times but practically the duo had miserably failed to come up to the expectations of masses who have time and again voted them in power. Rather than strengthening the State institutions the Sharif brothers treated and governed the country like that of a private business enterprise. Sharif’s decades’ long political carrier is a living proof of his incompetence and lack of statesmanship, skill and ability to run the state affairs in audacious manner. Rampant corruption, nepotism and favoritism have been hall mark of his successive governments. And this is the reason that he could not complete a single full-term despite being elected in power for thrice. The abuse of power and authority has since long been one of his cherished hobbies. In pursuit of absolute power Nawaz has not only damaged state institutions by following self-centric policies but had also brought key state institutions at loggerheads with each other. On one side Sharif’s authoritarian tendencies has pushed the country to the brink of disaster while on the other it has adversely affected the already fragile democracy and democratic process in the country. During his years in power he had miserably failed to put the country on the path of economic prosperity despite his lofty claims of making Pakistan as Asian tiger.
Unfortunately, Pakistan, despite having a growing semi-industrialized, is reckoned to be among one of the poorest and least developed countries in Asia. The country has been struggling hard to maintain its GDP growth rate at an average 5 percent a year, which is not enough to keep up with fast population growth. There are so many other things that over the past several years have contributed in making things even worst but lack of political will, widespread corruption and bad governance and misconceived policies at the hands of ruling elite has played a major role in pushing the country into a quagmire of uncertainty. It goes without saying that the external debt of Pakistan had reached to all time high in 2018. Particularly during the Sharif’s past four years long rule the Pakistan’s external debt had grown at fastest pace. and every Pakistani citizen owes a debt of about Rs. 1,37000, which means that every new born child in the country inherits a debt burden and gets entrapped in debt trap. On the contrary there is dangerous trend on the rise in Pakistan that is rich are growing richer at the cost of poor. One of the main reasons behind this is the lack of accountability in the country. Those who have ruled the country for so many years have never been held accountable in Pakistan. People who accumulated wealth beyond their known resources of income have never been made answerable and those who have had been at the helm of affairs in the country at different times have taken undue advantage of this what could be termed as an unfair and unjust system the ruling elite had held sway on.
The Panama Papers scandal is one such example that stands as a testimony as how Sharif family had stashed money in offshore accounts without having an inkling of accountability. The deposed premier and his family who were implicated in the case have miserably failed to defend themselves in the court of law as a result the supreme court of Pakistan disqualified him from holding public office. The deposed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s sons Hasan Nawaz, Hussain Nawaz and his daughter and son-in-law are facing multiple cases in courts. Hassan and Hussain have been declared as proclaimed offenders, both respondents have been asked to appear before an accountability court but it is yet to see as what kind of action the court takes against the plunderers of national exchequer.
